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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Twig Wilter Bug

I found this unusual bug on one of my succulents by the pool the other day. As usual I ran to get my camera and got a couple of pics. Referring to my Wildlife of Southern Africa book, I found out that it is a Twig Wilter Bug (Family Coreidae).

It seems that they literally live on the plants and feed on sap in twigs which causes wilting. Their eggs are also laid on stems of plants. When threatened they produce a foul-smelling secretion as a defence. The rest of the info just stated the obvious like that they are brown in colour and have spiky bits and so on and so forth. After reading the info I was just glad that he tolerated me and didn't secrete any foul sent on me.